About LGlick

Lilah was was the Global Warming/Clean Energy Outreach Coordinator for Clean Water Action’s Boston office where she advocated for climate and energy policy in the commonwealth and worked in local communities to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions. Prior to serving as a clean energy advocate, she worked as a Development Associate for a non profit Internet Service Provider to promote low income/ rural access to wireless services. She also served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua as a small business coordinator and as an Americorps Community Organizer for the city and school district of Falls City, Oregon.

iPhone Carbon Watch: Apple Leads Electronics Industry Again

Posted on October 13, 2009 by LGlick

My iPhone is a pretty much constant presence in my life, from checking my email first thing in the morning to watching my nephews play with the DoodleBuddy app. But until last week, I never seriously considered its impact on the environment.

That changed when Apple published greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and products for the first time. The report, available at www.apple.com/environment, goes farther than other consumer tech companies have by accounting for product usage.

Apple iPhone emissions

It turns out that my iPhone produces greenhouse gases equivalent to about 55kg of carbon dioxide over the full course of its lifecycle, from sourcing to recycling. My use of my iPhone produces about 27kg of carbon dioxide.

To put that in perspective, 55kg of CO2 is equivalent to burning 22 gallons of gasoline in a car or 8 propane cylinders on a backyard grill. If I planted 5 tree seedlings in my backyard tomorrow, it would take them 10 years to sequester the amount of carbon my iPhone produces.

OK, so what? Twenty-two gallons of gas and 10 trees ain’t such a bad trade given that the iPhone is… well… downright awesome.

Truly. The iPhone is one of the most successful consumer tech products in history. Apple has sold 21M iPhone units since Q3 2007, shattering sales records.

All those iPhones have produced a lot of carbon emissions, equivalent to 1.16b kg to be exact, or roughly the same amount as a coal-fired power plant in one year of operation.

NY Times rising consumption

Source: New York Times

Bottom line: there isn’t enough land enough in the world to offset America’s greenhouse gas emissions from electronics by planting trees.

To halt our rising carbon emissions, America needs more than offsets. We need renewable energy alternatives at scale and stringent energy efficiency standards, especially for our electronics, “which now represent 15% of household power demand, and that is expected to triple over the next decade,” according to the New York Times and International Energy Agency.

Many are working hard to accomplish this goal. California recently proposed to ban the sale of high energy televisions. Flat-screen TVs and video game consoles can use more energy than refrigerators in some American homes today, due to a lack of mandatory efficiency standards. Massachusetts has followed suit by hearing testimony on TV efficiency.

Apple, in the same report cited above, announced that all of their desktop and laptop products now come with EnergyStar certification, an industry first. Going further, Apple also boldly withdrew from the US Chamber of Commerce, stating “Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort.”

That’s a proactive step forward and a first for a major consumer brand. Other electronics manufacturers should follow Apple’s leadership.

Alex Patriquin is Founder and CEO of Digital Verdure, a digital media and sustainability company based in Cambridge, MA. Read more at his blog, DigitalVerdure.com.

Living Green Made Easy

Posted on October 12, 2009 by LGlick

The counter culture revolution germinated the civil rights and the peace movements, but also inspired the first Whole Earth Catalog (1968) that offered ways to live an environmentally conscious life. In its latest publication, the Whole Green Catalog, provides a wide range of products and living green tips for the eco-conscious or curious. The Whole Green Catalog is chock full of the usual green resources on housing, transportation, cleaning products, and healthy eating but also delves into greening your art and the latest in eco-technology. The catalog is published by Rodale, an eco-publishers that believes in “healthy living on a healthy planet”.

This is an excellent resource to have at home for easy reference, but I also recommend checking out some online resources to green living:

Climate Change Ranks Last in US Poll

Posted on September 28, 2009 by LGlick

While the evidence keeps piling up on the already devastating effects of climate change, a recent Bloomberg Poll rates climate change as dead last, with only 2% or respondents ranking climate change as the top issue facing our nation. It is clear that the economy and health care are vitally important issues to address, but the abysmally low ranking of climate change reflects the success of disinformation coming from industry and media that has sown confusion in the public on the science of climate change.

“Which of the following do you see as the most important issue facing the country right now? . . .”
			.
		%
	The economy	46
	Health care	23
	The federal budget deficit	16
	The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan	10
	Climate change	2
	Other (vol.)	1
	Unsure	2

Recent findings highlight that many people feel helpless about Climate Change, which leads to both apathy and inaction, and long term threats are difficult for people to assess. Climate change is an issue not easily understood by the public due to the complexities of the climate, feedback loops, and tipping points. At the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, the MET Office Report estimates that another 4 degrees Celsius could be in the pipeline by 2060, leading to major droughts, sea level rise, and ecosystem collapse. The original proposal to keep the globe from warming by 2 degrees by the end of the century is now seen as a “lost cause”. With Copenhagen just two months away, it is important for the public to better understand climate science and its impacts.

Scientists Speak out on the Climate Emergency

Posted on September 26, 2009 by LGlick

Warningco2 Dr. Melanie Fitzpatrick, Climate Scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, shared sobering data with concerned citizens at a Cambridge City Council special meeting on September 24th, as part of the city’s efforts to better understand the climate change emergency and respond at a scale proportionate to the emergency and consistent with the city’s own Climate Protection goals for 2010. Dr. Fitzpatrick emphasized that climate change is now occurring faster than the worst predictions of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) models and cited evidence including that the melt season is lasting 1 week longer in the arctic, a 9% reduction per year in arctic sea ice, winters warming 4 degrees in the northern hemisphere, and record global sea temperatures for the last three months. Scientists are now estimating that some of the feared tipping points are decades away rather than centuries. If we were to stop emitting greenhouse gasses today, there is at least another 1 degree of warming in the pipeline and we could potentially see an additional 4-7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century without major emission reductions.

While tipping point scenarios are still in the future, Dr. Jill Stein with the Physicians for Social Responsibility testified that there are already 300,000 deaths annually attributed to climate change due to record flooding, droughts, increased storm severity and occurrence, spread of infectious disease, and impacts to food and water supplies. For example, major flood events have increased four-fold in North America and six-fold in China compared to the century average. On a positive note, Dr. Stein related that by addressing climate change we will improve health and quality of life indices. The United States spends $2 trillion per year on medical expenses in which 75% goes to preventable chronic diseases. Investing in more walkable communities with local healthy food sources would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve our collective health. Fighting climate change would require our economic and social systems to take a long term view when planning for today.

Just consider that the majority of home owners purchase fire insurance, even though your risk of fire loss is very low– less than 1 percent or 1 fire in every 250 years. Under our current greenhouse gas emission rates, the chance of a catastrophic tipping point occurring like Amazonian desertification, Greenland Ice sheet melt, or the disruption of the Indian Monsoon now has a fifty percent chance of happening which would have devastating effects on the economic and social welfare of millions of people. Dr. Ackerman, Environmental Economist with the Stockholm Environmental Institute at Tufts University pointed out that to delay action would have disastrous socio-economic consequences for civilization. Dr Ackerman summarized four key ways to view long term economic questions:

Your grandchildren are Important! Current economic analysis has a high discount rate for future generations. This would be equivalent to saying that your prodigy is more important than your grand or great grandchildren.
If you insure your home and car for relatively low risk harm, we should invest in higher level risk like climate change.
Some things do not have dollar values. What is the value of a life or an ecosystem? Under the Clinton administration a human life was valued at $6,000 and the Bush administration lowered it to $4,000.
It is better to spend your money on prevention rather than treatment. Climate prevention could be spent on creating green jobs, developing new technology and industry.

Dr. John Sterman, an economist with the Sloan School of Management at MIT concluded that we should not wait to see the major impacts from Climate Change, as the stakes are too high and we will have likely triggered major tipping points. Dr. Sterman and the other panelists agreed that climate change can not be fought primarily with high tech solutions, but must include social participation that finds creative solutions both at the national and local level. Dr. Sterman in collaboration with Sustainability Institute, Ventana Systems, and MIT has developed a climate simulation to help you use a scientifically rigorous model to set a goal for CO₂ in the atmosphere, explore what it will take to reach that goal and to empower you to share those insights with others via graphs and explanation in order to make such actions happen. Discover Climate Interactive, their online community that creates, shares, and uses credible models, accessible simulations, and related media in order to improve the way leaders and citizens around the world think about the climate.

Cambridge Climate Emergency Hearing: September 24th

Posted on September 23, 2009 by LGlick

The Cambridge City Council is holding a special meeting on the Climate Emergency at City Hall on Thursday, September 24th at 5:30pm and will be broadcast on Cambridge cable TV channel 8. This proceeds the council passing a policy order resolution recognizing the existence of a climate emergency on May 11, 2009. The resolution obligates the city of Cambridge to lead in responding to Climate Change and to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City’s responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency and consistent with the city’s own Climate Protection goals for 2010 and beyond. A seven minute clip from the Cambridge city council hearing can be viewed on CCTV.

The city of Cambridge has taken a proactive role in addressing climate change and in December 2002 it adopted the Climate Protection Plan with the goal of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) city-wide 20% below 1990 levels by 2010. Despite the efforts of City staff and others the City has fallen short of this goal. The Climate Emergency Hearing provides the opportunity for experts to weigh in on the current state of climate change and potential ways the city can address the crisis.

Speakers will include Dr. Melanie Fitzpatrick of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Dr. Jill Stein of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Dr. Frank Ackerman of the Stockholm Environmental Institute at Tufts University and Dr. John Sterman of MIT Sloan School of Management. Scientists will discuss the mounting evidence of climate change exceeding the worst-case IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) scenario projections and the increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.

For more information see http://greencambridge.wikispaces.com/Calendar+of+Events

Rebounding Oil Demand and Push for Tar Sands

Posted on September 15, 2009 by LGlick

Alberta Tar Sands

It is conventional knowledge that oil is a non renewable resource made over 100 million years ago through the decomposition of small animal and plant life. These deposits are not spread evenly over the globe and in a number of key locations supplies have peaked and are on a permanent fatal decline. Take our second largest exporter Mexico, the Cantrell field peaked in 2004 and is showing a 17 percent decline. The United states also peaked in 1972 and now produces just 35% of what it did during peak production and this trend can be seen in 40 other countries globally. While there have been a number of large oil field finds over the last couple of weeks in Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, these fields are not the cheap easy to access oil fields but located deep in the ocean and under incredible pressure.

The future of oil is scarcity, and the high price of oil today even during the most severe economic recession since the great depression has kept prices hovering around $70 dollars a barrel. Major oil companies have now found it profitable to extract poor quality and high carbon oil in the form of tar sands. One of the largest fields under development is in Alberta, Canada which expects to unearth an area the size of Florida. The dirty little secret behind tar sands is that it is a highly toxic process that abuses water supplies, destroys forests, contaminates the water tables of local communities, and is more carbon intensive than conventional oil.

In the latest report by the Cambridge Energy Resource Association (CERA), it is expected that by 2010 oil demand will rise again with the recovering economy. While there has been quite a bit of contraversy about when Peak Oil should hit the global economy, it has become apparent that since 1960 we consume about 3 barrels of oil for every 1 we find. Many of the optimistic views on oil supply from industry is based on potential arctic supplies, now close to becoming a reality with the arctic passage open for the first time. It is critical that we find ways to drastically ramp down our consumption of oil and explore alternatives to this high energy commodity, not only because of climate change, air pollution, and environmental degredation, but to protect our economies from future potential price spikes due to the inevitable scarcity of oil and other non renewable resources.

Greening Living According to No Imapct Man

Posted on September 8, 2009 by LGlick

No Impact Man Spending three days in a meditation retreat center in western Massachusetts for labor day weekend reminded me how complex and busy my life has become in the hustle and bustle of Boston. It is easy being green out in the woods, where you are not tempted by the daily conveniences of fancy coffees, take out foods, and the countless other goodies to consume at ones whim. On a number of occasions I have lived in the countryside practicing permaculture and other eco-techniques like raising chickens, vermiculture, and biking as my sole mode of transportation. While these options are available here in Boston, finding the time to fully practice being green is an incredible challenge.

Collin Beavan, also known as No Impact Man, decided to try living impact free for one year in Manhattan with his family and their story is being released on September 11th to raise awareness on how to live more sustainable lives. The documentary trailer highlights some of the difficulties and rewards of living more sustainably and challenges individuals to look at what they eat, consume, drive, and all the other modern conveniences that have a collective impact on the planet. For instance, Colin Beavan’s wife Michelle struggled with giving up her Starbuck coffee’s but ended up reversing her diabetes through adopting a healthy diet and walking 24 flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. The family initially mourned the loss of their television and other conveniences but ended up finding more quality time for each other. Check out No Imapct Man’s tips on how to live green and the savings they made over the course of their project.

350: The new Climate Target?

Posted on September 2, 2009 by LGlick

Photo by John Quigley

NASA Climate Scientist James Hanson and national climate activist Bill McKibben are pushing to move the climate debate from keeping global emissions from surpassing the original danger zone of 450 parts per million as recommended by the IPCC, to instead recognize 350 parts per million as the new limit that should not be passed. Their recommendations come from recent findings by James Hanson, that indicates that climate change is happening faster than expected and feedback loops have a greater impact on climate than originally hypothesized. At 450 parts per million, we potentially run the risk of returning the planet to conditions when it was largely ice-free, when sea levels were higher by more than 200 feet.

The 350 movement is gaining steam with a top UN Scientist signing on in support. Currently, CO2 emissions are now at 387 parts per million and it is expected by 2100 emissions could reach between 400 and 1,000 parts per million. To get back to 350 parts per million, industry, governments, and individuals will have to go way beyond the proposed reductions which are already meeting incredible resistance here in the US and overseas.

To learn more about the movement visit 350.org and on October 24th individuals and groups across the globe are taking action to build public awareness on the importance of 350 ppm and leveraging meaningful political change. The city of Cambridge has also recently passed a resolution recognizing the climate change emergency. Cambridge residents can weigh in on climate change at the Climate Emergency Forum on September 17 at the Cambridge Community Center at 7 PM and a city council hearing scheduled for September 24th.

The Carbon footprint of computers

Posted on August 31, 2009 by LGlick

A lot of attention has been paid to the carbon footprint of automobiles, airplanes, and buildings, but one of the activities that takes up most of our time has gotten little attention: computers. In a recent article in the Economist, they covered a report published by the Climate Group on the climate impacts of computers. Surprisingly, computers have a cumulative impact similar to that of air travel, producing approximately 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution or about 2% of total over carbon emissions. The Climate Group estimates that by 2020, approximately 6% of CO2 emissions will come from computers and 1 out of 3 global citizens are expected to have a computer.

On the bright side, computers can offer a number carbon cutting tools like smart meters. Savings also can be obtained by businesses using distributive computing, instead of running their own server. An example of energy saving opportunities, was posted in the E2.0 article, ” Holyoke Green Data Center“, which would serve as a resource for multiple universities involved in biotechnology and climate industries.

As an individual, you can reduce the carbon footprint of your computer and its complementary accessories like, printers, faxes, and cell phones. The following tips can help you trim carbon calories from your energy waist line:

Unplug all your computers and complimentary machines. Even in the off or sleep mode they pull energy from the grid, often referred to as vampire loads!
Set your computer to sleep mode when you are away from your desk for prolonged periods of time (15 minutes or more)
Purchase an energy efficient PC. Laptops actually use a lot less energy than desktops.
Turn off your computer when you are done for the day and use a power strip so that you can turn off all computer accessories at once.

It’s a Thirsty World…

Posted on August 25, 2009 by LGlick

Living in Massachusetts, it is easy to take water for granted with an average rain fall of 45 inches per year. While 2009 might turn out to be an above average year for rainfall, overall the region is expected to experience more frequent drought episodes. But despite the impacts from climate change and falling water tables from unsustainable suburban developments, Massachusetts is lucky in comparison to many other places across the globe like India, Australia, Mexico, Las Vegas, and the story of the week– Greece.

In a warming world, India which has been self sufficient for thousands of years is now deeply challenged on how to feed and provide water for its 1.15 billion inhabitants. A number of converging factors have forced India to buy food on the International market– the monsoon has been coming later in the season and this year in some districts there is a 60% decrease in rainfall. The Green revolution has also depleted the water table at 1.6 inches per year, and growing populations are adding to further resource depletion.

Developing countries are not the only places affected by climate change, population pressures, and unsustainable industrial practices. Las Vegas, the poster child for the housing boom,potentially will have major water shortages by 2012 and plans to lay deeper pipes to keep up with falling Lake Mead. Georgia on the other hand, was just struck down in the courts for its endless thirst for southern watersheds in Florida and Alabama.

The days of cheap water that is wasted on pristine chemical treated lawns, chlorinated pools, and industrial agriculture might be coming to an end. Over a billion people globally suffer from lack of sufficient clean water, it is estimated by 2025 forty percent of the global population will be short of this precious resource. Global warming in conjunction with unsustainable water management practices is creating a very insecure world, as Mark Twain noted,

“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”

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